The road ahead figures to be difficult. Minnesota, led by the league's most valuable player, Kevin Garnett, would have a home-court advantage against the Lakers, based on a better regular-season record. Sacramento is deep and well-rounded, and has come close to knocking the Lakers out of the playoffs in the past.
Should the Lakers advance to the finals, they could face the club with the league's best regular-season record, the Indiana Pacers. Again, the Lakers would face the possibility of playing a deciding game on the road, where NBA teams tend to fare poorly.
Despite all that, the mood among the Lakers is suddenly upbeat.
"I knew we had it in us," O'Neal said. "Now we just have to wait and see who we are going to play next ... and just take it one game at a time, and keep playing with passion."
The Lakers played Saturday's finale on the emotional high of having won a game in San Antonio that many labeled an instant classic -- a cliffhanger that seemed to typify the ups and downs and high drama of the season.
Through much of it, the Lakers displayed some of their best basketball. They exploited a hot shooting night by unheralded Devean George to run up a 16-point lead midway through the third quarter. Then, as the Spurs' defense tightened, the Lakers went cold. The Spurs not only caught up, but took a three-point lead late in the fourth quarter.
The Lakers' two marquee players, O'Neal and Bryant, hit crucial baskets to put the Lakers back in front by a point with 11 seconds to play. Faced with their last offensive chance, the Spurs got the ball to their top scorer, 7-footer Tim Duncan, who caught it outside, with his back to the basket, and made a quick move across the middle of the floor, closely guarded by O'Neal.
Turning, falling to his left, Duncan got off a long, high-arching shot that somehow went in. The crowd erupted in cheers and the Spurs leaped into one another's arms, celebrating the apparent victory. The Lakers called timeout with only four-tenths of a second left on the clock.
The Lakers plotted a desperation play for either Bryant or O'Neal, but when both were covered, Payton made the inbounds pass to the 6-foot-1 Fisher, the man Payton had replaced in the starting lineup.
In one motion, Fisher turned and flung a running, fall-away 18-foot jump shot over the outstretched hands of Spurs defender Manu Ginobili. The ball was barely out of Fisher's grasp when the final buzzer sounded. It fell cleanly through the hoop to give the Lakers a 74-73 win, prompting happy shrieks in living rooms, bars and airports throughout Southern California.
